Branson 8/4/2018

Branson, MO has all the commercialism of Gatlinburg, TN, the music of Nashville, and the beauty of Asheville, NC. Home to over 100 live shows that range from magic to rock 'n' roll, country, family harmonies, comedy, variety, gospel and dinner shows, it is set in the absolute beauty of the Ozarks. The Ozark Mountains may not have the soaring, breath-taking sheer cliffs and alpine vistas of the Rockies, but their tree-covered hills and valleys are just as scenic and engaging.

We've never visited this area before, so we will be here for 5 nights to check it out. 

Our campground is a short distance from the entertainment strip, but has the quiet, country feel of a place much further away. Like all of Branson (and I suspect, all of the Ozarks), it is very hilly. All of the campsites are in tiers set along the hillsides, one row of sites above the next. As far as I could tell, pretty much all of the campgrounds in the area are the same set up. When we checked in, we found that we could get tickets for any of the shows through their preferred provider at a discount. When we perused the list, we chose 2 and called to order tickets. Within 15 minutes, the tickets were delivered to our RV door. 

The first show we saw was the Shanghai Acrobats, a show that really was amazing. For 2 hours with a 15 minute intermission, we saw a continuous stream of acrobatic acts. One of the craziest (and best) acts was a young man who held the handle of a sword in his mouth and balanced an upright stemmed wine glass on the edge of the sword blade, and slid the wine glass (without touching it) up and down the blade. Then he did the same thing and added liquid to the glass. Then he did contortions while holding the glass with liquid on the blade. He had the audience check out both the glass and the sword to confirm that they were legit. Great show!